Dear Mila,
In just a few short hours, you will ride down Mass Ave. as part of a parade of Harvard students and affiliates, flanked closely by a group of male students performing in gaudy drag. The parade will be followed by an intimate celebrity roast, where those same students will poke fun at you—just as they have with Octavia Spencer, Amy Poehler, and Kerry Washington in the past few years. It is all part of the “Woman of the Year” celebration hosted by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, a theater company composed of Harvard undergraduates who perform some 40-plus burlesque shows each year.
As Amy Poehler pointed out while receiving the award in 2015, you may be surprised to find that you are the only female on stage; no woman has ever been cast in the Pudding’s 223-year history.
As Harvard students, we ask you to decline this award. We have been inspired by your unapologetic stance against sexism in the workplace. We have stood by your side in support of the #MeToo movement to end sexual harassment and assault. And we have read your essay where you stated that you are “done compromising” and “done with being compromised” as a woman in Hollywood. We, too, are done compromising with sexism on our campus, and there are few examples clearer than the Pudding’s unwillingness to cast women in its shows.
These performances—which are directed professionally each year—are, as The Boston Globe put it, “as close to a real Broadway production as college students can get.” Actors prance around the stage in flamboyant drag, touting names like “Ophelia Thrustin” and “Donna My Knees.” And don’t think this is the kind of drag that challenges gender confines like that common in the LGBT community—its intention is in no way celebratory, but instead seeks to crack easy, sexist jokes that draw from misogynistic tropes. We doubt Miss Thrustin nor Miss Knees would be quick to convince you otherwise.
What makes it worse is that being cast in these shows opens up major opportunities in Hollywood. The Pudding has enormous prestige, boasting alumni including Jack Lemmon, Breaking Bad actor Dean Norris, and Broadway composer Larry O’Keefe. Having the Pudding on your resume is a sort of Los Angeles “gold star,” and female performers at Harvard are robbed of the exposure and other benefits that come with it.
Not to mention that while tickets to attend the “Man of the Year” ceremony—this year honoring actor and producer Paul Rudd—are selling for $200, tickets to your ceremony sold for only $80.
You are in good company if you accept this award, and we cannot blame you for receiving the prestigious honor that has been presented to you. But surely you would be in better company with the dozen women who auditioned for the show this year in protest of its gender discrimination, the 86 alumni who signed a petition demanding that the policy change, and the thousands of other Harvard students and alumni who continue to stand against the institutional sexism the Pudding clings to. The message has been made clear: despite internal protest from undergraduate members of the organization—including many of the women who staff its tech, business, and writing teams—the graduate members who hold the power to change its single-gender status have no intention of doing so.
Mila, it is your voice that is needed to end this two hundred-year legacy of gender discrimination. We, as students and alumni, have done our part to protest the Pudding’s unequal policy, but only an outspoken rejection of this award by an honoree like yourself can truly make the Pudding’s executives listen.
And to Amy, Octavia, Kerry, and the dozens of other powerful women who have accepted this award in the past: it is not too late to take a stand against this blatant sexism. Speak up; we are all listening.
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr